Turning Point
by Izzu
Summary: Journey's End. This is it. The start of his new life. As much as this was a very exciting notion, it was also scary. For him.


az: Because I had this draft written long ago. I'm planning to write a new take on what happened to the two post Journey's End but before the timeline of the fics I've written on them so far. Not sure if this scene could fit with the new one I'm writing, but I felt bad for deleting this.

So yeah, have a go at this one shot.

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Turning Point

Written by Izzu alias honou-no-izumi

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He could tell that Rose was having a hard time to decide on the situation. They all were... and the Doctor was not making it easier. As much as he disliked the way the Doctor was referring to his nature, he could not deny its truth. It hurt. If he was already hurt by this, how would Rose...?

Donna said about the Doctor's reasoning of leaving him with Rose, of what that could have meant... oh yes, he understood that reasoning. He understood it the moment the Doctor pulled him aside to tell him about it. He had not argued about it _then_, because he knew that there was no other path they could have taken.

Yet now... he wondered if it was all right. For things to end like this...

… _suppose if this was to be the last chance to say it all_..._ Rose Tyler_...

"Alright both of you, answer me this. When I last stood on this beach—on the worst day of my life—what was the last thing you said to me? Go on, say it."

He stared towards the Doctor, almost able to read the jumbled thoughts that had been warring inside the Time Lord's Brain. The advantage of having a psychic bond with your _original—_screw that, all Time Lords have this psychic abilities to communicate with each other. He knew the answer. Of course he knew...

The Doctor gave her a forlorn look. "I said 'Rose Tyler.'..." he said and stopped there.

He knew it, he knew that _he_ would not say it. Because if he did... what was the point of _him_ bringing the three of them back here?

"Yeah and? How was that sentence gonna end?"

"Does it need saying?"

He sensed the Doctor's conflict in his mind as he knew what would have come next. As he thought, just as soon as the Doctor finished his sentence Rose had turned towards him.

"And you, Doctor? What was the end of that sentence?"

He sighed before lowering himself so that his lips hovered before her ear...

A part of him had suddenly dreaded this moment. Because despite the fact the feelings he had inside him had been true, that emotion was mostly...

"_I love you too_."

He pulled back, unsure of the reaction Rose would give to him. A part of him was scared at the rejection he might receive. Because as much as _he_ and Rose wanted to have these words spoken and heard, Rose would not have wanted him to be the one to say it.

_Because these feelings originally belonged to him_...

Without warning, Rose grabbed the lapels of his jacket and pulled him towards her so that his lips forcefully crashed into hers. Immediately all of his shields came crashing down as he responded willingly while Rose kissed him passionately.

It was what he—or _he—_had wanted. Yet, his solitary heart ached...

Or was it _his_ hearts? He could not tell which. It felt as if so many hearts had been broken on this verymoment in time. He sensed that the Doctor... and Donna was leaving as he deepened the kiss.

The TARDIS's door snapped shut as Rose's attention was taken. The illusion quickly faded as he watched Rose—and the TARDIS—before the blue box vanished from sight. He walked up towards her to hold her her hand in comforting gesture.

xxx

"You all right?"

He gave Rose a weak smile before looking away.

This is it. The start of his _new_ life. As much as this was a very exciting notion, it was also scary. For him.

He was the Doctor... yet he was not at the same time. The notion alarmed him still, he had no illusion that Rose would not feel the same. He was _unique_ yes, aside from being a part of the last Time Lord in existence; he was also the only one born out of a biological meta-crisis process.

He blinked.

Wait. The _only_ Time Lord? What about the ones in _this_ parallel universe? Or any _other_ parallel universes? Then again before their previous arrival into Pete's world, there were no indications that showed that this particular world had any interactions with any extraterrestrial lifeforms; much less having a Time Lord protector. But like all parallel worlds, there should be a parallel existence of every single existence in any timelines. There _should_ have been a parallel version of _himself_. And what happened to _him_ if _he_ had existed here? If _he_ was still alive, what could have happen if they ever would have met each other?

Would there be a parallel Gallifrey here? Still existing and not engaging in any Time War and never be sealed in a Time Lock...

He shook his head as the thoughts became complicated and painful and he would rather not overthink things. If possible.

He felt the small coral lying still inside his coat pocket as he recalled the words the Doctor had said to him before. Of course, aside from allowing him to continue being able to travel time and space; having a TARDIS of his own would allow him to be able to protect this side of the universe as well. The last few incidence with the Cybermen was one thing, who knew what could have happened next. So in a way, he was an insurance. He knew that. Thing was... would it be possible to do that here?

"_It's possible to speed up the growth. Shatterfry the plasmic shell and modify the dimensional stabiliser to a foldback harmonic of 36.3, you'd accelerate the growth by the power of 59. You'll be able to make the new TARDIS grow in a shorter time than usual."_

He snorted to himself. Good 'ol Donna to think up nifty ideas. Her human intuitions and everything. He might need a while to explore _that_ part of being human. He had so much to learn... about being one.

And as for the plans to grow out the coral into a full TARDIS, he might have to try to build the equipment that could make that happen in secret. He would not want anyone else to misuse or steal the TARDIS away from him. Or even steal any of its technologies...

He turned his eyes to watch the passing sceneries as he tried not to think about what would happen to his Donna. Dalek Caan said that one of their companions would die, but he knew that the Doctor would try save Donna's life. Yet, the prophecy should still remained unchanged. Then that should mean...

_A part of Donna would die_.

Not sure between Donna or the Doctor, who between them that he would missed most. Not to mention their other companions of course... and Jack. Technically he had no consciousness let alone memories when he was still just a hand, yet he had this feeling that Jack had been taking care of him... it... whatever... so well. Even though they barely interacted with each other earlier, it seemed as if he was already _fond_ of the Captain. It was like this odd feeling he had about the Master, that was not part of a memory taken from the Doctor. A bit odd... these timey wimey spatial odd sense.

Anyway, yeah... he would miss the Doctor terribly. It was not just _how_ he would always be drawn towards him—it happened even while he was still a hand after all—but the fact that their bonds between each other was a bit different than the normal psychic bonds between Time Lords. As they _were_ essentially _each_ other, unlike Jenny—oh, if only she was still around—or any other children the Doctor used to have.

Oh...

Without the Doctor... what would become of him? Would he just be a shadow of the man? A mere copy? Was he destined to just be an exact copy of him or could he be more than that?

As they left Bad Wolf Bay, he could feel the connection to the Doctor gradually getting fainter. Somehow that scared him.

He sighed before turning towards Rose.

"I don't know. Maybe I _will_ be all right. Somehow."


End file.
